Two Catholic secondary schools in Dublin have been accused of bias by four Muslim families for admitting 
Catholic children ahead of non-Catholic children.
The two schools, St Benildus and Oatlands Colleges, elected not to enrol the children of the Muslim parents due to a shortage of places.
However, according to a report in the Irish Times, both schools had two of their decisions overturned by the Department of Education when parents appealed under section 29 of the 1998 Education Act, even though that Act permits both primary and secondary schools to set their own admissions policies.
Under section 15(2)(b) of the Education Act, the Boards of Management of schools are required to uphold, “the characteristic spirit of the school as determined by the cultural, educational, moral, religious, social, linguistic and spiritual values and traditions which inform and are characteristic of the objectives and conduct of the school”.
Under 15(2)(d), Boards of Management are required to publish the admissions policies and to ensure that the right of parents to send their children to a school of the parents’ choice is respected “having regard to the characteristic spirit of the school and the constitutional rights of all persons concerned”.
In two of the cases, parents’ applications were rejected by the schools in question.
In two other cases, however, parents appealed to the Department of Education under section 29 of the Education Act, which allows parents or, where a student has reached the age of 18, the student in question, to appeal a decision to Secretary General of the Department of Education and Science.
In April 2004, St Benildus rejected the application of Jamel Boumazouna to enrol there. Jamel’s parents are Algerian and Irish. The mother, Sandra, said she believed Jamel and another boy, who she described as having “a not so Irish name”, were the only two in their class in their primary school not to be accepted into St Benildus.
The family appealed under section 29. Their appeal was upheld by the department in June 2004, which instructed that Jamel be enrolled at St Benildus from September 2004. He was enrolled.
In another case, a Mr Beloufa Ouadria appealed a decision by Oatlands College in Stillorgan not to enroll his son Ibrahim in the school in 2012 under section 29, having previously failed with an appeal in regards of a decision by St Benildus College not to enroll an older son, Abdulrahman.
Abdulrahman was subsequently enrolled in Oatlands College; however, a number of issues, in particular regarding discipline and religious education. arose between the school and Mr Ouadria.
The appeal was upheld in June of this year as “the legitimate expectation of all parents of applicants in category one – applicants who have a brother presently in the college – were not met”.
The Department concluded that the board of management at Oatlands “did not treat Mr Beloufa Ouadria’s application in a fair and reasonable manner”, It recommended “that Ibrahim Ouadria be enrolled in Oatland’s College for September 2012”.
However Mr Ouadria’s second son, Abdullah, then refused to accept his place at Oatlands earlier this month and Ibrahim insisted he would not attend there next year when he was due to start, both in protest at their older brother’s experiences there.